I'm looking to buy a bouldering pad, trying to decide between mad pad and the bd impact. Any suggestions would be great-my last pad was a gaper mat/old foam mattress affair taped together with duct tape-so no real idea of what to look for

Ever since BD took over Franklin there has been a serious drop in the quality of the foam used in their pads. Whatever you do don't go for a BD pad, and a number of my bouldering friends will back me up on this. Their design is very appealing but the foam they use is just way to soft! One friend has since resorted to using his old beal instead of a fairly new BD!

On the other hand, I have friends with very old MadRock pads and they have held up extremely well. There are some new designs out as well if you look on their website (http://www.madrockclimbing.com/crashpads.aspx) but not sure if these are available in SA yet.

I was looking into making one myself a few weeks ago, using 3", high density open cell foam and 20mm, high density closed cell foam. At the end of the exercise it was roughly the same price to buy one. So I went out and bought a Black Diamond Impact and headded off with my mate and his Mad Rock Pad. Now I don't know if they have since changed the design, but my BD is definitely harder than his Mad Rock.Both very good pads

I've had two Beals, and two Impacts, and the quality of the foam in the Impacts is the worst out of any foam that I've encountered in a mat (I haven't tried the Blue Water mats to any real degree), with the exception of ... The Mondo. You may see a pattern emerging here. The quality of BD foam is awful (there's no problem with the quality of the rest of the mat, however). There's a good reason as to why I currently use my 4 year old Beal pad, as opposed to either of my newer Impacts.

The quality of the Mad Pad foam is excellent, as good as the Beal foam, and, while I don't necessarily like some of the design aspects, Mad Pads are good, longwearing mats. Impacts are not.

The problem with the BD impact is that it feels fine for 2 weeks, but it's lifespan is not much longer then that. I on the other hand, I have a Franklin Dropzone which I bought in Spain (Looks essentially the same as the BD version) - this pad started the whole rot in SA as the quality is far far far superior to anything that BD offers here in SA. And 2 years later it is STILL absolutely fine.

The BD retailers eventually had to replace the foam in a number of the pads as they thought they were defects given that the foam quality was so different to the Franklin's. However there was no improvement!!!

Dogleg - monitor your foam carefully and if it starts to deteriorate you may want to talk to the retailer about replacing the foam, or else replace it yourself.

the problem with most pads is that they have one layer of open-cell soft foam in them and one layer of closed-cell harder foam. if you turn the pad the wrong way up you land on the soft foam and easily damage it that way. all the MR and some BD pads are built that way. some pads like the BlueWater Samurai pad are built like a sandwich in that they have a soft cell middle layer and TWO hard cell layers on both sides. this type of construction is heavier and more expensive but longer-lasting.

Robert this isn't always the best thing - for some problems (i.e. low roof problems) it is actually more beneficial to flip the mat over so the soft foam is on the outside which gives you a softer landing. As you are low to the ground you also won't bottom out. 2 layers is not a problem as long as the foam quality is fine.

The design of the BD (Taco style) necessitates that you have a hard inner layer and a softer outer so that the pad folds up easily.

I am the retailer, that sold dogleg his pad! based on black diamonds rep with there other product (focus harness for example) I assumed it would be a good bye for a trusted friend, but if what im hearing about the pad scares me. so dogleg let me know if the pad kills or breaks bones in rocklands, and ill give you a discount on a madpad.

I have a mad rock tripple pad which i really love but need another pad should i buy another normal mad pad or should i go for the beal double air pad i am happy with the mad rock but the beal is a little bigger does anyone have a beal and a mad rock to compare the two?

i got a beal double air recently just before a trip to rocklands and it treated me just fine.havent climbed with a mad pad so cant compare the two.the beal has that sandwich design (reverso) so you can flip it over for a softer landing on the back.its a really good pad, the only thing i dont like about it is the shoulder straps that move and adjust themselves if you pick up the pad. it also has this hook-loop system to strap it up, but the hook is too big for the loop so it is a mission getting it in and out.